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There has been a growing focus on uncertainty as a distinct concept in the risk literature. This paper is concerned with how those involved in the design and implementation of climate change policy conceptualize risk and uncertainty. Based on interviews with policy and industry elites in Australia, China and the UK, it finds that participants did not distinguish between "risk" and "uncertainty" in their conceptualization of climate threats. For the majority of them, politics was the most significant source of risk and uncertainty in climate policy, but delegation of otherwise political decisions to the market was seen as the best solution. The conclusion suggests that the conceptual distinction between risk and uncertainty is less important, for policy and industry elites, than the need to develop mechanisms that account for both persistent scientific uncertainties as well as interpretive and moral ambiguities in climate policy design and implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Collaborating with universities in Hong Kong, Finland, the United Kingdom and Australia the research project outlined in this paper takes up one of the key initial findings related to the importance of children's online spaces away from school. The project brings together complementary strengths from each partner nation to assist our mutual need to understand the worlds of our young “netizens” - the new public citizens of cyberspace. Differing in social and cultural context, each setting is recognised as a strong contributor to understanding the competencies of young people's digital expertise. We work from the shared view that the arrival of Web 2.0 and 3.0 social networking tools is educationally challenging and demands futuristic thinking for sustainable education and social connectivity globally. Our research aim is to use a common research design to discover how young people are behaving in the new online spaces; what guides their decision-making; and what, if any, common values appear to emerge when results between countries are compared. Locally derived knowledge gained from samples of 12-year-olds will be subjected to cross-cultural comparisons and validation. In doing so, we make some assumptions about the homogenising process that shared global networks may be fostering. Bringing together these contributions will strengthen the decision-making process and provide new knowledge about meaning making, agency and citizenship for the twenty-first-century e-democracy. This paper reports on the conceptual process underlying the research and the research design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We identify individuals who set daily intake budgets and examine if an intervention making people estimate their calorie intake up to a certain point in the day helps those setting daily budgets to regulate their calorie intake for the remainder of the day, after high prior consumption. We conducted an online experiment in five countries: Australia, China, Germany, India, and the UK (n = 3,032) using a 2 (setting calorie budget: yes vs. no, measured) x 2 (intervention: intake reminder vs. control, manipulated) between-subjects design, with the amount of prior consumption measured. Participants were contacted in the afternoon. Those in the intervention condition were asked to estimate their prior calorie intake on that day. We measured the individual characteristics of those who set daily calorie budgets and the intended calorie intake for the remainder of the day. Among people who set daily calorie budgets, the intervention reduced intended calorie intake for the remainder of the day by 176 calories if they had already consumed a high amount of calories that day. A timely intervention to estimate one's calorie intake can lower additional intended calorie intake among those who set daily calorie budget. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stem cell science is an emerging global industry in which nation states compete fiercely for economic advantage. Currently, the USA dominates this international competition but critics have argued that it lacks an innovation strategy to maintain its position. Strong international competition and internal policy problems may pose significant challenges to the future of US stem cell science. At the same time, the governments of the UK, China, India, Australia and Singapore are developing strategies to enhance their competitive edge within the global stem cell economy. How should the US government respond to these developments? Is a federal strategy necessary to protect the advantages of the US stem cell industries or can it be assumed that the present innovation infrastructure is sufficiently flexible and dynamic to cope with the global challenge? In this paper we address these questions through an examination of the US stem cell innovation system from the perspectives of science, society and the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Overuse of and dependence on analgesics (including opioids and other pain medications) are major international public health problems. Objective: To identify influences on analgesic dependence among analgesic users in the general populations of different countries. Methods: Online surveys of 1,283 people with pain in the UK, USA, Australia, Germany, Egypt and China/Macau/Hong Kong. Results: Levels of analgesic overuse and dependence were highest in Egypt and lowest in China/Macau/Hong Kong. In every country except Egypt, frequency of pain and frequency of analgesic use were correlated with analgesic dependence, and scores on the Need subscale of the Pain Medication Attitudes Questionnaire (PMAQ) independently predicted analgesic dependence. In the UK, USA, Australia, and Germany, frequency of analgesic use mediated the effects of pain frequency or intensity, and Need scores mediated the effects of frequency of analgesic use. In Egypt, more recent pain, analgesic overuse, and the Emotion and Solicitude subscales of the Survey of Pain Attitudes independently predicted analgesic dependence. Conclusions: Across multiple countries, the impact of pain on analgesic dependence was mediated by frequency of analgesic use rather than overuse or abuse, and self-reported need for analgesics was the strongest independent predictor of dependence. Asking people directly about their feelings of needing analgesics could therefore identify those who could be helped to use analgesics less frequently, which should reduce their risk of dependence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]